Wheelhouse Luxury Apartments

 Australian Traveller Magazine’s 100 Great Australian Holiday Homes In December 2002, Richard and Andrea Dyson completed a three-year labour of love, and two new holiday homes in Strahan – cleverly designed to resemble fishing trawlers – opened their portholes to the public.

With the front of the houses built using sheets of angled glass and the living rooms cantilevered on steel beams over the waters of Macquarie Harbour, a sit on the sofa in any of the Wheelhouses feels remarkably like being seated on the advancing prow of a ship, beneath the open sky, borne on a following wind with the sea flowing directly below.

Trapeze lighting snakes through suspended oars, circular windows adorn the upper floors and yacht-like sundecks beckon. Furniture is of local timber, and seashell fossils imprinted in the foundations contribute to the overall maritime vision, which is brought further to life by the scattered masts of sailboats in the bay, and the fish restaurants, marinas and salty enclaves of Strahan village.

Details // Fraser St, Strahan, Tas. From $220 per night, per couple. www.wheelhouseapartments.com.au, (03) 6471 7777.